Tormé (Torme), Mel(vin Howard)

Tormé (Torme), Mel(vin Howard), versatile American singer, songwriter, and actor; b. Sept. 13, 1925; d. Los Angeles, June 5, 1999. In a career that lasted 67 years, Torme achieved his greatest recognition as a jazz-oriented singer of classic pop songs. But he also dabbled successfully in a wide range of activities in entertainment. He wrote hundreds of songs, among them the seasonal standard ’The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” and worked as a drummer, pianist, and musical arranger. He acted in films and on television and also wrote, produced, and hosted TV shows. He wrote articles and books ranging from fiction to biography. But he spent most of his career in nightclubs and concert halls, singing with a burnished baritone, his phrasing exceptionally flexible, his repertoire ranging from the songs of Rodgers and Hart to those of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. Though he never achieved widespread popularity as a recording artist, by the 1970s he was recognized as one of the most outstanding jazz singers of his time.

Tormé’s father, William Torma, a retail merchant, had his name rendered as “Torme” when he passed through Ellis Island as a Russian immigrant; Torme added the accent as a teenager. His mother, Sarah Sopkin Torme, was a song demonstrator. When he was four his parents took him to a nightclub in Chicago to see the Coon-Sanders Orch., and Carlton Coon invited him onstage to sing. He continued to sing with the band weekly for six months, then had other singing engagements. He began to study the drums at age seven, and by 1934 he was appearing as a child actor on local radio. In August 1942, Harry James and His Orch. with Dick Haymes on vocals scored a Top Ten hit with his composition “Lament to Love.”

In August 1942, Torme joined a big band led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers as a singer, vocal arranger, and eventually, drummer; he stayed with the band until it broke up the following year. Spotted by a talent scout for RKO Pictures, he made his film debut in the movie musical Higher and Higher, released in December 1943, next appearing in the films Pardon My Rhythm and Ghost Catchers, both released in May 1944. He took over a vocal group he named the Mel-Tones and became their lead singer and vocal arranger. He served briefly in the military in 1944 before being discharged for having flat feet.

In 1945, Tormé appeared in two more films, Let’s Go Steady, released in March, and Junior Miss, released in June. His song “Stranger in Town” was recorded by Martha Tilton and made the Top Ten in July. Meanwhile, he was getting work with the Mel-Tones, accompanying Bing Crosby on the March 1946 chart entry “Day By Day” (music by Paul Weston and Axel Stordahl, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) and Artie Shaw and His Orch. on “I Got the Sun in the Morning” (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin), which was in the charts in July 1946. He also appeared in the film Janie Gets Married, released in June. But his most memorable effort of 1946 was “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” (music by Mel Torme, lyrics by Robert Wells), the million-selling Top Ten hit recorded by Nat “King” Cole’s King Cole Trio.

Signed to the MGM film studio, Torme appeared in the movie musical Good News, released in December 1947, as well as sang “Blue Moon” (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) in the Rodgers and Hart film biography Words and Music, released in December 1948, But although he worked on two more films in this period, lending his voice to the Disney animated feature So Dear to My Heart, released in January 1949, and appearing in Duchess of Idaho, released in July 1950, he did not become a movie star. Instead, signed to Capitol Records, he had a series of successful recordings, scoring five Top Ten hits in a little over a year during 1949-50, starting with “Careless Hands” (music by Carl Sigman, lyrics by Bob Hilliard), which hit #1 in April

1949, and followed by “Again” (music by Lionel Newman, lyrics by Dorcas Cochran), “The Four Winds and the Seven Seas” (music by Don Rodney, lyrics by Hal David), “The Old Master Painter” (a duet with Peggy Lee; music by Beasley Smith, lyrics by Haven Gillespie), and “Bewitched” (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart).

By the 1950s, Torme had launched a successful career as a nightclub singer, with regular forays into recording and television and film work. He was a regular on the summer TV series TV’s Top Tunes (1951) and Summertime U.S.A.(1953) and had his own daytime talk show for a time, also making dramatic appearances on such programs as Playhouse 90. He returned to filmmaking in the late 1950s and appeared in minor roles in a series of films: The Fearmakers (1958), The Big Operator (1959), Girls Town (1959), Walk Like a Dragon (1960), The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960), The Patsy (1964), and A Man Called Adam (1966). His recordings became increasingly jazz-oriented, featuring top jazz musicians as sidemen and frequently employing arranger/conductor Marty Paich. His recording of “Mountain Greenery” (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) was a Top Ten hit in the U.K. in 1956; “Comin’ Home Baby” (music by Bob Tucker, lyrics by Bob Dorough) made the American Top 40 in 1962 and earned him his first Grammy nominations, for Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male, and Best Rhythm & Blues Recording; and “Lover’s Roulette” was in the Top Ten of the easy-listening charts in 1967.

Torme wrote and produced for television as well. Notably, he wrote arrangements and special material for The Judy Garland Show (1963-64), an experience he describes in his first book, The Other Side of the Rainbow (1970). He hosted the 1971 documentary series It Was a Very Good Year.

Since the 1970s he began to gain greater recognition as a musician and jazz performer, exemplified by a series of Grammy nominations. He was nominated for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for “Gershwin Medley” from his 1974 album Live at the Maisonette, but most of the nods came in the Best Jazz Vocal Performance category in 1978 for his album with Buddy Rich, Together Again, for the First Time; in 1980 for Tormé/A New Album’, and in 1981 for Mel Torme and Friends Recorded Live at Marty’s New York.

After a career of jumping from label to label, Torme finally found a recording home with the independent Concord Jazz imprint in 1982, where he did some of his best work. An Evening with George Shearing and Mel Torme won him his first Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male, in 1982, though he protested that pianist Shearing deserved to share the award, and he repeated in the same category with Top Drawer in 1983. Further nominations came with An Evening at Charlie’s (1984), An Elegant Evening (1986), A Vintage Year (1988), and “Ellington Medley” from Mel and George Do World War II (1991).

In 1996, Torme suffered a stroke that ended his career; he died of complications related to it three years later. He was married four times and had five children.

Writings

The Other Side of the Rainbow: Behind the Scenes on the Judy Garland Television Series (N.Y., 1970); Wynner: A Novel (N.Y, 1978); It Wasn’t All Velvet: An Autobiography (N.Y., 1988); Traps the Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich (N.Y, 1991); My Singing Teachers: Reflections on Singing Popular Music (N.Y, 1994).

Discography

Collection (ree. 1942-85; rei. 1996); It’s a Blue World (1955); Swings Schubert Alley (1960); Encore at Marty’s (1982); With Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass (1986); Mel Torme and the Marty Paich Dek-tette (1988); Night at the Concord Pavillion (1990); Fujitsu: Concord Jazz Festival in Japan (1990); Mel & George “Do” World War II (1991); Sing, Sing, Sing (1993); Velvet and Brass (1995); A&E An Evening with Mel Torme (1996); That’s All (1997).

—William Ruhlmann